SOLAR STORAGE BREAKTHROUGH

Triangle researchers find way to store solar power

Jay Price, January 14, 2014 (NewsObserver)

“…[Researchers have] discovered a potential solution to one of the fundamental problems of generating large amounts of energy from the sun’s rays: how to store some of the power so it’s available at night…The scientists [from UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University] found a new way to use solar energy to split molecules of water into its atomic-level components: oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be burned for fuel, generating only water as waste, which can then be recycled to be split again…The process currently generates hydrogen equal to about 1 percent of the energy in the sunlight received. But now that it’s clear the concept works, the researchers think there’s little doubt that they can improve the efficiency…[to] at least 15 percent, which is similar to the efficiency of current commercial solar cells…” click here for more

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